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Reflowing – an effective solution for Yellow Light of Death

We receive many questions here at Play and Talk regarding the yellow light of death error that has occurred in a large percentage of first and second generation Playstation 3s that have been sold. We are often asked “what causes this to occur in my system”? “Is this a common problem”? “What are the chances of my console not being able to be repaired?” All of these questions and more will be answered in this blog all about the Yellow Light of death.

To put things simply the Yellow Light of Death or YLOD, indicates a general hardware error, meaning that something inside the console is not working correctly.

8 out of ten times the issue is in the GPU or Graphics processing unit, which is located on the motherboard. What happens is that the solder underneath it physically cracks causing it to malfunction. The main cause of this is overheating which can be made worse by large build ups of dust inside the console.

The most common solution to this is a process known is reflowing. This is a process where the solder underneath the GPU is set back into place by heat. There are a handful of different ways to reflow a system. One of them is don’t by putting your system in a conventional oven and heating it at 400 degrees. This method is not recommended and will more than likely relapse leaving the system bricked. The second way would . be to put a heat gun to the GPU and manually reflow the solder back into place. Although this is a better solution than the conventional oven home remedy, it is still not recommended and has a high chance of relapse. At play and talk we use a top of the line reflow machine that has specific settings for systems to make sure they are reflowed correctly.

Electronic gadgets always attract me and this craze is visible from my childhood. My professional career has also got the same touch of electronic media. Now, I am employed to serve our clients regarding video game, iPhone, Smartphone and other repairing service on behalf of Play and talk.